The traditional structure of the business supply chain, which viewed supply chain management as a chain of events, is evolving, in response to the ever-complicated logistics of modern trade, commerce and communications, towards viewing supply chain management as a three-dimensional model. In other words, organizations no longer view supply networks as a linear relationship between raw materials and distributors. Rather, today's supply web resembles a three-dimensional construct, complete with a variety of suppliers, tiers and intermediaries that serve to fill in for one another in the event of a disruption.
Increasingly, how well a supply web creates and shares information not only defines how well the web holds together, how efficiently it operates, and how much value it adds but also determines the success or failure—as a group—of the manufacturing venture. Companies need to share supply metrics, timelines, demand and capacity data to enable the supply network to develop a common and aligned set of objectives, which can protect it against commodity pressures, volatility and individual failures. Sharing information can speed up supply chains while mitigating the inherent risks in doing so. This new model, with cost management at its core, can capture decades of best practices in a unified strategy for a new generation of companies and managers.
Essential to the practices of supply chains is the establishment of material control through a combination of material control towers that dictate, to suppliers, price, terms, and supply requirements.
Although significant advances have been made towards establishing a three-dimensional supply chain by companies such as E2Open™, GT Nexus™, and Resilinc™, problems remain. Many three-dimensional supply chains are fairly rigid and unable to respond dynamically to, let alone anticipate, adverse events. This can cause disruption in the supply chain and concomitant interruptions in the product distribution chain.